Last season the Patriots finished with an 11-14 record and went on to surprise Clarksburg in the first round of the playoffs before losing to Kennedy in the second round. After losing six seniors the team looks to its new crop of seniors to fill their shoes.

Seniors Ryan Warshaw and Zach Nannen will play big roles this year. Warshaw led the team with 31 three-pointers while Nannen finished with eight. Junior Garrett Koch, who has played with these seniors for years now, believes this senior class can lead the team deep in the playoffs. “Our seniors are good enough leaders to allow us to have a good playoff run this year,” Koch said.

While the senior class will be looked upon as leaders, the talented juniors will need to play a big role in order for the team to have a successful season. Koch and Kevin Ayissi Etoh are the only returning juniors from last year’s team. Koch had an effective sophomore year, his first on varsity, where he averaged six points per game and had 16 three-pointers overall, second most on the team. Ayissi-Etoh was statistically last year’s best player and he is looking to follow that up in a big way this season. Ayissi-Etoh averaged a team high 16.4 points per game. Koch believes Ayissi-Etoh will be a big part of the squad’s success again this season. “Kevin keeps us in every game, he makes everyone around him a better player,” Koch said.

Unfortuneately the Patriots suffered a huge loss as Ayissi-Etoah has potentially torn his ACL. This will leave a large whole in the team as his prescense is unmatched. He led the team in scoring last year and other players will have to step up.

This year’s team is an experienced one but there are some new faces that will try to make an impact during their first year on varsity. After having a successful season last year on JV, sophomore Jack Lvovsky is set to make his varsity debut. Lvovsky will be looked upon as a second team guard who can provide the Patriots with good scoring and passing off the bench. Junior Ryan Mariani didn’t play basketball last year, but has experience at a high level playing at Good Counsel two years ago. He will be looked on to play point guard for the team. Mariani is excited for this new challenge this year. “Playing for Wootton will be exciting because we have a good team that has the potential to do a lot this winter,” Mariani said.

Before the Patriots open up their regular season games they played two exhibition scrimmages against St. James and Damascus. They split wins and they can look at an individual performance as a positive. Koch put up 27 points against Damascus and he also showed off his passing ability, getting seven assists.

The Patriots open up their season against Magruder on Dec. 5 at home, too late to be covered in this issue.